Further reports of the death of the English language

[dianec42]

Saw this one yesterday:

"Daily per diem"

*sob*

Comments

[marmota.livejournal.com]

*twitch*

[hobbitomm.livejournal.com]

Try everytime the BBC refers to the 'HIV Virus'...

[tobyaw]

At least with HIV one can typically tell from the context which HIV they are talking about, but it could equally well mean High Interest Vessel, or Header Isolation Valve. So for the purposes of clarity to the lay reader it can be useful for acronyms to be accompanied by what may seem to be superfluous words.

Of course the real answer is not to use acronyms at all, or to define them at their first use in each document. This is particularly important for acronyms which can have several uses in the same technical area, such as ATM or DOA.

Coming back to the 'per diem', I guess the answer is not to use foreign terms unless your readership understand them.

[hobbitomm.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but

"Human Immunodeficiency Virus Virus"?

[gypsy0131.livejournal.com]

I sympathise with Diane and Hobbit here- to not use words because you assume the readership will not get it is not reasonable logic. There will always be people who know certain words and terms which are specific to a field or area of expertise. The imperative should be to educate people, not dumb down any language. Anyhow, terms like per diem are colloquial enough that they should not need an accompanying word, and are easily found in the dictionary. Bah Humbug.

[sharikkamur.livejournal.com]

Just like ATM machine and PIN number. :)

Acronyms are useful - normally. Pop quiz: What commonly used acronym has twice the number of syllables of the term it replaces?

[qidane.livejournal.com]

WWW?

[sharikkamur.livejournal.com]

Yup. i've always like that - what the point of an acronym that's longer than the phrase itself? :)

[anneb.livejournal.com]

>Of course the real answer is not to use acronyms at all,

Well, if we don't use acronyms (acronymification? acronymifying?) we're left with the other really common stupid practice of making up words. Like "daylighting" formerly "undergrounded" streams (removing them from the tunnels they were buried in) and other verbifying offenses. (cringe)

Why can't the 'merkins teach their children how to speak?

[anneb.livejournal.com]

See, that's whatcha git when you let furriners in bringin' all them fancy furrin words in to mess up your language. Why can't they larn 'MERKIN when they get here, 'sted of just bringin' their old ones with em?

I tell you, I just looked at the VA state seal, and it wasn't even a seal. (We don't get seals in coastal Virginia, anyways! We get jellyfish.) There were these two girls in sundresses, and someone scribbled "sick simpering tyrant" or somethin' on the bottom of it, in some furrin language! Why couldn't they write that in 'merkin?

[feste-sylvain.livejournal.com]

Is that the death of English or the death of Latin?

[asimovberlioz.livejournal.com]

The La Brea Tar Pits.

The El Capitan Theater.

French dip with au jus sauce.

[sharikkamur.livejournal.com]

Lake Windemere

lake - means a body of water
winde - means a body of water
mere - means a body of water

Triply redundant!

[anneb.livejournal.com]

Rock is dead, long live paper and scissors.

Any rate- can you give me a ping with your contact info? Mine's in my userinfo if you don't have it.